Der Golem (German: Der Golem, shown in the USA, as The Monster of Fate) is a 1915 German silent horror partly lost film, written and directed by Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen. It is inspired by an ancient Jewish legend. Rabbi Löw’s magical powers enabled him to combine the four elements (fire and water represented by his assistants), air (Rabbi himself) and earth (Golem made out of earthenware) to vitalize a lifeless sculpture made out of mud. The gothic horror novel, Frankenstein, one of the most well-known stories in which man tries to play god by attempting to manufacture a living being can be compared with the similar story, that of the golem albeit with some obvious differences. The word ‘golem’ appears once in the Bible (Psalms 139:16), and means ‘shapeless mass’ or ‘unfinished substance’ in Hebrew. According to a Talmudic legend, Adam was a golem for the first 12 hours of his existence. Because Adam was then a body without a soul.
The horror film by Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen tells the story in modern times, when an antiques dealer (Henrik Galeen) finds a golem (Paul Wegener), a clay statue, brought to life, by a Kabbalist rabbi, using a magical amulet, four centuries earlier. The dealer resurrects the golem, as a servant, but the golem falls in love, with the dealer’s wife, Jessica (Lyda Salmonova). As she does not return his love, the golem commits a series of murders.
Carlo Marino
